What is content marketing?
If you’ve done your research, chances are high you’ve stumbled upon this all-important phrase: content marketing. In fact, any business that’s kept up to date on marketing strategy is sure to have come across this popular term.
So, what is content marketing, exactly?
Content marketing is the creation and distribution of intentional content made with the goal of attracting a target audience, gaining leads and making conversions.
Content marketing comes in several forms, and it’s best to diversify the content you create.
This graphic from Curata gives a clear look at how content can be implemented:
Whether you have an online business or a brick and mortar shop, content marketing is absolutely essential for any digital marketing strategy.
Read ahead to find out why you need to incorporate this valuable strategy.
Why your business needs content marketing
Although content marketing is quickly gaining popularity, the idea of content marketing is not new. Way back in 1996, Bill Gates wrote a little essay called “Content is King.” In this pivotal piece he writes:
“Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting.”
More than 20 years later, and this statement rings truer than ever before. Here’s why content marketing is so important for your business:
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1. It’s cost-effective
This is a big one. If you do content marketing the right way, it can be one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies available. By this logic alone, you should implement content marketing into your overall strategy.
The question is, how do you make sure it doesn’t break the bank? The answer to this lies in the type of content you produce.
Blogs are one of the most effective and affordable ways to create content for your website.
Websites like WordPress allow you to build a blog for free. If you want to upgrade, plans start at just $4 per month.
Blogging allows you to implement important SEO practices that help you attract the right audience to your business. The best part is, learning how to start a blog only takes a few simple steps.
2. It pulls in the right audience
Now, a lot of you may be wondering how to pull in the largest audience and gain maximum traffic to your site.
I’m here to tell you that when it comes to traffic, quality is what makes money.
Let me explain – say you’ve found a way to pull in 1000 visitors to your site every month but you have a low conversion rate.
That’s because the audience you’re attracting isn’t interested in your product. There’s a way to solve this and it lies with content marketing.
Optimized content is a powerful tool because it pulls in the correct audience. The content you create should answer an important question or provide valuable information.
The people who are interested in this content are far more likely to be interested in your product. So, what does that all mean? A quality audience equals more leads and a higher conversion rate.
This is one of the primary reasons why content marketing is such an important strategy to utilize.
3. It increases your authority within your niche
Now, this one will take some time, however quality content along with service from good seo companies can give you the tools to become a leading voice in your industry.
In order to become an authority in your field, you need to really focus on a niche. There is so much content out there, that if you focus on a general topic, it’s nearly impossible to stand out from the crowd.
Choose a topic you’re genuinely interested in and create well-researched content.
Starting small gives you a much higher chance of being a leader on that topic. If there is less competition, people are more likely to turn to you for information.
It takes more than just defining a niche, however. Once you start creating content, you have to find topics that are different and more informative than that of the competition.
Research the competition, find out what they write on and who they target. This information can help you narrow your niche so you can provide expert information.
As your authority grows, other pages will refer to you as the expert, your site will earn more backlinks and you’ll increase quality traffic.
4. Builds trust with your audience
This goes hand in hand with increasing your authority within your space. Creating valuable content and raising your credibility will, in turn, gain the trust of your target audience.
Let’s break this down. Let’s say you have a business specializing in interior design. You can focus on creating content that addresses common concerns, issues, and questions relating to your niche.
If you can provide real answers, backed by research and experience, your audience will begin to see you as a reliable source of information.
If you provide consistent content, your audience can turn to you for answers relating to your area of expertise. Now, when they see your name in the search results, that will be the first link they click.
Once that trust is established, converting leads becomes that much easier. If the audience can trust your opinion, they’re much more likely to buy what you’re selling.
Quick Tips to Build Your Content Marketing Strategy
- Define the products and services that will benefit from content marketing.
- Define your goals for content marketing
- Identify your target audience
- Research the competition
- Determine any gaps in current content
- Begin brainstorming for content ideas
- Diversify your content
- Use SEO best practices
- Create standards for quality and consistency
- Answer questions and provide information for the target audience
Final Thoughts
Content marketing isn’t a new strategy by any means, but it’s important now more than ever, to implement this marketing strategy for your business. Pulling in that target audience is always the goal, and with content marketing, they come to you. It’s time to start your research and build a content marketing strategy to give your business the best chance at success.